Friday?s 6-pack:
Six highest-paid college football coaches:
$9,753,221? Nick Saban, Alabama
9,012,917? Ed Orgeron, LSU
8,924,683? David Shaw, Stanford
8,370,775? Dabo Swinney, Clemson
7,672,710? Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma
7,570,000? Dan Mullen, Florida
Quote of the Day
?People don?t care how much you know until they know how much you care.?
Mark Twain
Friday?s quiz
Which major league team drafted Tom Brady in 1995, as a catcher?
Thursday?s quiz
Wayne Gretzky finished his NHL career with the New York Rangers.
Wednesday?s quiz
Jim Mora Jr was coach of the Seattle Seahawks before Pete Carroll.
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Friday?s Den: Random stuff with weekend here??.
13) Flash back to Week 11 of 2016, Rams were 4-5 when they gave rookie QB Jared Goff his first NFL start; they played Miami at home that day. Leading 10-0 with 5:00 to play, Rams screwed up the end of the game and lost, 14-10. They wouldn?t win another game the rest of the year.
At that point, Rams hadn?t had a winning season since 2003; I was really mad after that game, mostly mad at myself for rooting for a team that was so incredibly inept- they fired the coach about a month later.
Had the Rams won that game against Miami, they would?ve been 5-5 and on an uptick; they probably would?ve gone at least 2-4 the rest of the way. Owner Stan Kroenke has said that if the Rams finished 7-9 that year, he wouldn?t have fired the coach. He said it.
My point is this; hiring Sean McVay is the best thing to happen to the Rams since Kurt Warner led the Greatest Show on Turf, but McVay would most likely be coaching another team had the Rams won that game against Miami.
Sometimes in the long run, losing isn?t so horrible. Sometimes.
12) Bucs 28, Eagles 22:
? First two drives: 19 plays, 150 yards, 14 points.
? Tampa averaged 7.1 yards/pass attempt, Philly 4.0.
? Bucs were 7-13 on 3rd down, Eagles 3-10.
? Hurts ran ball 10 times for 44 yards, completed only 12-26 passes.
? RB Sanders ran ball only nine times, but for 56 yards.
? Bucs 73 plays, 399 yards; Eagles 47 plays, 213 yards.
11) Dodgers 2, Giants 1:
? Bellinger?s hit in 9th inning drove in winning run.
? Webb allowed one run in 7 IP for Giants.
? Scherzer closed it out for his first career save.
10) St Louis Cardinals surprisingly fired manager Mike Shildt Thursday; they said it was ?philosophical differences?. Being a big league skipper ain?t as much fun as it used to be. Shildt went 252-199 in regular season games with St Louis, 4-9 in playoff games.
Tony LaRussa was 93-69 in Chicago this season, lost in playoffs to Houston; he?ll be back next with the White Sox next season.
They say if Aaron Boone returns in the Bronx next year, his coaching staff will be picked by the front office, not by Boone. They already fired the batting coach and 3rd base coach.
9) In college football, Missouri/New Mexico are both 0-6 ATS. Clemson/Kansas are 0-5.
8) Wild Card weekend in the NFL has four games; one of those games will on Monday night, an ESPN game. Don?t even think about putting that game in a cold weather city. Games with poor weather get better TV ratings, but this is a playoff game. Put it in warm weather or a dome.
7) South Alabama 41, Georgia Southern 14? Jaguars? QB Scott Bentley is playing his 6th year of college football; he played 34 games at South Carolina, five at Utah, and is now in the Sun Belt with the 4-2 Jaguars, who got their first conference win here.
Bentley threw for 389 TD?s, three TD?s in this game.
6) Jacksonville Jaguars still haven?t made a field goal this season, they?re 0-5. Jaguars are first team in Super Bowl era (since 1966) not to have a FG in their first five games.
5) Some of the better games in the ACC/Big 14 basketball challenge, Nov 29-Dec 1st:
? Iowa @ Virginia
? Duke @ Ohio State
? Michigan @ North Carolina
? Louisville @ Michigan State
4) It wasn?t that game, but I was watching another NBA preseason game and the TV people are discussing who will win the MVP this year? who cares ?!?!?! It was freakin? October 13, let the season begin at least before you speculate on who the MVP will be.
3) 33-year old point guard Ish Smith played college ball at Wake Forest; I hope he writes a book someday- he?s played for lot of teams. Here is his career path:
2010-11: Houston/Memphis
2011-12: Golden State/Orlando
2012-13: Orlando/Milwaukee
2013-14: Phoenix
2014-15: Oklahoma City/Philly
2015-16: Philly/New Orleans
2016-19: Detroit
2019-21: Washington
2012-22: Charlotte
He must have some great stories to tell; 2,555 assists, 5,055 points. Quite a career.
2) Dallas 127, Charlotte 59? I know this was an exhibition game, I know the score doesn?t matter, but this might?ve been the worst basketball game I?ve ever seen. I?ve seen a lot of basketball games.
Not sure what the Hornets were doing, but they weren?t competing, not even close. Guys try harder in pickup games on the playground.
1) During the pandemic, when there were no ballgames going on and I was doing movie lists and stuff like that in this space, it bugged me that one day, I?d realize that I left a great movie off my list. Well??.
I?m flipping channels the other night and the 1989 movie Cousins is on; Ted Danson, Isabella Rosselini, Lloyd Bridges. Loved this movie when it came out, but hadn?t seen it in almost 30 years and it never got on one of my lists, when it belongs there.
William Peterson is also in the movie; he plays Gil Grissom on CSI, so this movie had two of the three actors who would later play the head of the crime lab on CSI, one of my favorite TV shows.
Anyway, Cousins is on HBOMax now, if you want to catch up with it. It is worth your time.
